Noma Award for Publishing in Africa

The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa (French:Le Prix Noma de Publication en Afrique), which ran from 1980-2009, was an annual $10,000 prize for outstanding African writers and scholars who published in Africa. Within four years of its establishment, the prize "had become the major book award in Africa".[1] It was one of the series of Noma Prizes.

The prize was established in 1979 by Shoichi Noma (died 1984), president of Kodansha Ltd, the largest publishing house in Japan, to encourage the publication of works by African authors.[2] The award was annual and given to any new book published in three categories: literature, juvenile and scholarly. The award was sponsored by Kodansha Ltd, administered by the quarterly African Book Publishing Record,[3] and presented under the auspices of UNESCO. Books were admissible in any of the languages of Africa, whether local or European. The award was ended in 2009 after the Noma family ceased its sponsorship.[4]